DEMARCHE TO TURKEY ON STATE OF US-SYRIA BILATERAL

S E C R E T ANKARA 002386 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/SE, NEA/NGA, PMAT; OSD FOR ISA AND ISP; JCS FOR J5; EUCOM FOR J5, POLAD; CENTCOM FOR J5 AND POLAD; E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/19/2013 TAGS: PREL MARR MOPS TU SY IZ ETTC SUBJECT: DEMARCHE TO TURKEY ON STATE OF US-SYRIA BILATERAL RELATIONS REF: A) STATE 93794 B) ANKARA 2372 (u) Classified by Ambassador W. Robert Pearson. Reasons: 1.5 (B and D) ¶1. (S) During a late afternoon April 11 meeting with MFA Director General for Bilateral Relations Burcuoglu (after FM Gul had announced he had canceled his trip to Damascus -- ref b),DCM conveyed USG views on the current state of US-Syrian relations (ref a). DCM said he had intended to deliver the message in anticipation of FM Gul traveling to Syria. Even though the FM had canceled the visit, the it was useful to share with the GOT current US views on US-Syrian relations. ¶2. (S) After the DCM delivered ref a points, Burcuoglu said FM Gul would have delivered a similar message to Syrian officials had he visited Syria. He described the canceled visit as a "missed opportunity." Burcuoglu said that, given FM Gul's busy travel schedule (Burcuoglu said Gul would be traveling to Brussels, then to Athens and finally to Pakistan on April 21-22),there were no plans at the moment to reschedule the visit to Syria. PEARSON